The (Kenyan) government Wednesday said it is encouraging private firms and religious organisations to establish universities and other institutions of higher learning to curb capital flight.

This is being done in line with the governmentâ€™s policy as provided for in Sessional Paper No. 1 of 2005 on Education, Training and Research, President Kibaki said Wednesday.

â€œThis will go a long way to reduce capital flight and indeed fewer Kenyans are now seeking further education abroad,â€™â€™ said President Kibaki as he awarded a university charter to Strathmore.

Interestingly, Strathmore – now Strathmore University – was an approved center (along with 13 other institutions) by our joint venture with the JKUAT (the JKUAT-MMS Information Technology Training Centre), and under this aegis provided its ICT education utilizing our curriculum and program.

Our ten-year venture was founded in 1996 in order to train Kenyans at home, in part reversing the brain-drain in Kenya, at an affordable cost. Over 6,000 graduates went through the program, and now are responsible for virtually running all of IT in Kenya – especially IT education. Over 95% of our graduates were successfully placed in employment.

Shortly after Mwai Kibaki came to power, in June 2003, his chief campaign advisor and Mount Kenya chum Nick Wanjohi, freshly appointed JKUAT Vice-Chancellor, seized the venture – expropriating it – squandered the funds, and destroyed the program. Wanjohi seized the venture by use of campus police power.

One of the excuses I hear today is that Kibaki wasn’t ruling at the time, coming off years of drunkenness as well as a crippling automobile accident. Well, he’s ruling today – or is he? – and our venture is still expropriated, and we have not been compensated, despite assurances to the contrary by the Kenyan constitution.

US Ambassador (and Raila Odinga’s boy) Mike Ranneberger has helped to cover up this expropriation by terming it “a business dispute,” and castigating me personally for not turning to the same Kenyan courts he said were too corrupt for Raila Odinga to use. In the past, we have turned to the Kenyan legal system to rectify fraud and illegal conversion, but 14 years have passed, and Amos Wako and his fellows have not yet prosecuted the known culprits! Perhaps the file is lost …

So, to those organizations and institutions that are considering investing according to the recommendations of President Kibaki, just remember that if you succeed, some friend of the President may come along and simply take your investment with impunity, and you will be left with nothing.

If you are an American investor, the US State Department and Embassy will not only fail to stand behind you, but will do everything in its power to see to it that the fact of the expropriation will never see the light of day.